On stage, "SNL" vets really push envelope

A couple of "Saturday Night Live" veterans showed how much further they can go with their comedy onstage than they could on TV, at one of the most successful shows of the truncated Seattle Comedy Festival, Saturday night at the Paramount.

Jon Lovitz, the quacky-voiced little guy who often played con men or phonies on "SNL," got into some pretty risky territory in his hourlong routine, saying he is not so much a Jew as Jew-ish and that life would be easier if he, and they, were not the Chosen People, because jealousy equals persecution.

He told dirty but funny jokes, like the one about the goat that ate her bridal bouquet, and said he hopes that John Kerry, if he loses the election, won't do what Bob Dole did and talk on TV about his erectile dysfunction.

He did a long routine about the aftermath of Lance Armstrong's testicular cancer, joked about pedophile priests, and closed at the piano with an obscene but wickedly funny song about an ex-girlfriend.

Norm MacDonald was a deadpan contrast, delivering his material with even more smirks than he used to do on SNL's "Weekend Update."

"My goal in life is not to die," he drawled. A beat went by. "I wish I'd put more effort into it."

He did edgy, daring routines, most notably about 9/11, like comparing the death toll with that in war-torn Rwanda — which he said nobody cares about — joking about the short-lived obsession with American flags and crediting the terrorists with inventing new ways to die, like typing at your desk in a skyscraper (which is hit by a plane) or opening an envelope (with anthrax in it).

He compared terrorist attacks with the much-more-prevalent heart attacks, joked that alcoholism is one disease where at least you can drink, and said that when you die of cancer, you don't lose a battle — it's a draw, because the cancer dies, too.

He ended with a lot of class, by honoring George Miller and Drake Sather, two Seattle comedians who died in recent years.

John Wessling told college-level drinking, drugging and sex jokes, and ably served as master of ceremonies.

Two of the festival's seven shows were canceled, but Lovitz and MacDonald drew about half a house.

Patrick MacDonald: 206-464-2312